Another Curiosity
by Red Berin
Summary: It's the first day of school at Coal Hill. Ian and Barbara find themselves interested in a strange girl who acts just a little bit differently than the rest of the students.


A very big thank you to YOLOstories for pointing out my mistake dealing with the education system in England. If there are any other corrections I should make to that, please let me know! I'm not entirely knowledgeable about the differences between the American and English systems. Thanks!

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><p>The school bell rang and Ian jumped out of his seat. He had been gazing at the clock for the past five minutes, lost in his thoughts. Mere seconds after the bell, the classroom door swung open and students started filing in. The room filled with their chatter and Ian could feel the first-day-of-school excitement radiating from them. The bell rang once again to signify the start of the period. Ian asked one of the students in the back to shut the door so he could begin.<p>

An unused piece of chalk rested on Ian's desk. He picked it up and wrote his last name on the board in an untidy scrawl. "Right, then. Welcome to Year Eleven General –"

A loud bang startled Ian and several students cried out in surprise. A girl dressed in a bright red shirt and a black skirt decorated with red hoops strode into the room. "Sorry I'm late, teach! Slept straight through the alarm."

Ian raised an eyebrow. "And who are you?"

The girl dropped her backpack onto a desk towards the back of the room. Seemingly impervious to the other students' snickers, she said, "I'm Dodo Chaplet!"

A glance at the attendance roster showed Ian that her parents hadn't really called her Dodo. Her name was Dorothea. Deciding against any chastisement on the first day, Ian dropped the matter. "As I was saying, this is Year Eleven General Science. I'm Mr. Chesterton. If I only teach you one thing this year, it's going to be why science is so vital to us."

The rest of Ian's introduction went without a hitch. His students were pleasantly quiet, although he wasn't sure if the silence was because they were paying attention or because it was still too early in the morning. He soon turned the conversation towards his students, wanting to hear what they had to say about the importance of science. He was surprised when Dodo's hand was the first in the air.

"Sickness!" she exclaimed. Ian prodded her to elaborate, and she launched into a fast-paced explanation. "Well, I mean, if two groups from two different areas meet. One group could have developed immunities to sicknesses that the other group doesn't have. People in the first group could easily get through the common cold, but if the other group hasn't developed immunity, they could get really sick and even die."

"That's absolutely right," Ian said, slightly impressed. "One of the more notorious examples of this is how the Native Americans had no immunity to smallpox when Europeans brought the disease to North America."

Other students gave answers to his questions. As he listened, he noticed that Dodo had slowly stopped paying attention. She was unfocused and appeared to be doodling in her notebook. She dragged her pencil across her paper while her free hand held up her head. When the discussion began to die down, Ian directed his next question to Dodo, hoping she would have something else for him. "Can anyone think of anything else? How about you, Dodo?"

Her head shot up and she stared at him with wide eyes. "Oh, I dunno. Um . . . I think everybody else is pretty much right."

"Yes, I guess so."

Ian tried to give a review in the twenty minutes he had left. He found it difficult to keep the class's attention. They weren't really disruptive, just preoccupied with the usual first-day-of-school thoughts. He couldn't help but notice that Dodo didn't offer any answers. Even when he called on her, she never answered correctly.

The bell finally rang to end the period. Ian told his students that he would see them tomorrow. As they left, he kept a close eye on Dodo. She ran to the front of the room to meet up with a group of girls. They giggled and laughed together as they left the room.

He watched until she had completely disappeared from sight. Was it her strange answer that had led him to be so interested in her? No, the answer wasn't strange at all; it was perfectly correct. It was the way she answered. She had been so enthusiastic about it. Ian guessed that he was expecting her to answer more questions, to be just as excited as she had been. When she stopped offering answers and gave wrong ones to his questions, he had admittedly been disappointed.

There wasn't any time to ponder over a bizarre girl, though. More students were entering the classroom and he would soon begin second period.

"See you tomorrow, Mrs. Chesterton!"

Barbara smiled at the young girl and responded with a goodbye. Once the door was shut, she let out a long sigh. Teaching Year Nine during the last period of the day wasn't ideal, but she would have to make do.

Finally, she was able to sit down at her desk and have a moment to herself. She brushed chalk dust from her hands and began to sift through a stack of papers without really reading them. She had just given her students a sort of pretest to see where they stood in their history knowledge, but she didn't think she was ready to go through their answers after such a long day.

A series of brief knocks on the door startled her. Before she could say anything, the door opened and Ian entered the room. He grinned at her. "There's my favorite teacher."

He walked behind her and stopped to give her a kiss on the top of her head. "Hello, honey," she said, reaching out for his hand. "How was your first day back?"

"It hasn't been too bad," Ian responded. He sat at the desk directly in front of Barbara's. "Much of the same, really. How about yours?

"It was the same as any other first day, but there's one girl I have in my seventh period class who I just don't understand."

"Your seventh period class? Which one's that?"

"World History. Year Eleven."

"My first period class is also Year Eleven. One particular girl stood out to me as well," Ian said as he rested his elbows on the desk and leaned forward.

Barbara's eyes narrowed. "You're not talking about –"

"Dodo?" Ian finished her thought.

"Yes! She told the class about Doc Holliday and Johnny Ringo. Maybe she read about them in a book or something, but Ian, she talked about them as if she actually _knew_ them. She spoke about some sort of gunfight at the O.K. Corral."

Ian tapped his chin with his index finger. "She gave a pretty detailed answer about a group immune to a disease travelling and spreading the disease to a foreign group. She didn't answer any other questions, even when I asked her directly."

The couple fell into a thoughtful silence as they tried to solve the mysterious Dodo. Ian suddenly broke into laughter. "Barbara, do you think we might be looking too far into this? Maybe she got her disease answer from a television program or she could have visited the O.K. Corral when she was a kid."

"I thought about that, but there's something else she said." As Ian leaned even closer, Barbara continued, "We got on the topic of the War Machines. The class kept laughing, but Dodo insisted that London was saved by an old man."

Ian's mouth dropped open and he gaped at her. "It couldn't have been –?"

"I really don't know, but why wouldn't it have been?"

"We should ask her about it! What if it really was him?" Ian jumped from his seat, darted to Barbara, and grasped her hands.

Barbara gave him a sad smile. "I don't know if we should. He wouldn't have stayed behind with her; he's probably already gone. Besides, do we really want to bring this all up to a seventeen-year-old girl we barely know? We've worked so hard to explain our disappearance. I don't want to answer any more questions."

Rubbing the back of his head, Ian agreed. "You're right. She could end up ruining what we've worked to fix. Last time we were curious about a girl, we ended up missing for two years. Let's stay home this time."

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><p>I got this story stuck in my head and just had to write it. I hope you enjoyed it and thanks for reading!<p> 


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